Excerpts from Recent Letters

9 January 2012

I´m working in the Melipilla Branch, Melipilla District now. It´s a HUGE district (basically a stake) out in the countryside outside of Santiago. There´s like a centro that´s more city and then tiny suburbs and campo campo (like corn fields and cows and horses for days). I´m working in all the tiny suburb areas. The other two elders who live with us have the campo campo and the city.  

Elder Balcon is my companion now. He just became a District Leader this change and he´s from Concepcion, Chile. I´m so glad I´m living with four again. We actually share the branch (my sector is named Melipilla 1). The other two Elders are Elder Champion (like that?) from Fremont, California, and Elder Lacambra from Barcelona, Espana. I love them all. Elder Balcon and I work VERY well together. It´s funny but the minute I went home with the three of them I felt fluent in Spanish. I could understand them all fine and I´m totally comfortable listening to Spanish and saying what I need to say now. I still can´t really explain the feeling because it´s just different. Still have loads to learn but I feel like now I actually notice words I don´t know now and I can ask for clarification and remember the answers for later. I actually understand the reason for the grammar rules and I struggle understanding why English makes sense now haha. I´m learning great Chileno (en vez de Espanol) from Elder Balcon.

I love the branch and her members and the campo is just absolutely gorgeous (just wait until you see my study view!), but it was a very long and trying week. My sector is very small as far as houses and population goes but very loooong, so we walk a ton and still feel like we´re trapped in a box. Elder Balcon has knocked almost every door and most of the time people just don´t come out.  Almost every cita fell through this week. We visited a lot of retention this week (people who´ve been baptized in the past 2 years).

I made a decision about halfway through the week that I was just going to be the happiest darn Elder in the world, come what may. I made the change because I remembered something my teacher, Hermana Vance, told me in the MTC. "When people see you, they need to see Jesus Christ." It´s become my motto. It makes the day go more easily but we still haven´t found many people who want to listen to us...so maybe I´m going to have to think of even more different ways to present our message.   

Pray for us! I´m staying really optimistic but it has been very rough. I find lots of strength in the scriptures. I love Heleman Chapter 12 and 3 Nefi 7. Isaiah is actually a great motivational speaker for missionaries.

Random tidbit. You´ll be very proud to hear that I had Elder Barrett humming Pride and Prejudice music by the end of our time together. 

2 January 2012

I'm learning SO much on the mission, and not just about the spiritual. After a few different service projects, I'm completely confident putting in ceramic tiles in people's houses (WAY fun!). We got to do it again with an investigator and his family this past week. Cool seeing how Christlike service changes people's hearts and receptiveness to the Gospel. I'm meeting tons of people who say after meeting us they're excited to talk about God or learn about the Church, whereas before it was one of the last things they felt like doing.

I'm leaving Ochagavia!!! It's way exciting but super sad at the same time because I've really fallen in love with some of our investigators (I KNOW some of them are going to get baptized) and they really love us, too. They're starting to really progress. I feel the Spirit more than ever in our lessons and Elder Barrett and I are just tearing it up.  Plus I really don't want to say goodbye to our Bishop and other stellar members of the ward. It's such an awful, mixed feeling. I've been saying goodbyes and taking pictures. I don't know where I'm headed to until tomorrow, so I'll talk more about it next week.

19 December 2011

Yesterday was rough with all the rejection and disappointment but like always, we kept working hard and saw some little glimmers of success by the end of the day. We're teaching this awesome girl named Gabriela. She's the girlfriend of Oscar Nunez, one of the sons of a super strong family in our ward. It's amazing how much we can cover when the person is genuinely interested and wants to hear the message. She waited like three hours yesterday in the Nunez home while we got another person in the house with us so we could teach her. Can you believe that? :)  It was easily one of the best lessons we've taught on the mission. There were like six members there in the end helping us, and she not only has their support and testimonies, but she has seen how much the gospel has blessed their family...even though they've made mistakes. That's how missionary work should be done. Seeing the difference between teaching Gabriela and when we teach people after we knock doors or street contact is amazing. It's like night and day.

28 November 2011
I think it's interesting how being a missionary somehow
makes you a certified drug abuse, marriage, and family life counselor!
They really look at you like you can help them with anything. But more
miraculously, the Lord qualifies us and helps us to be able to fulfill
those roles for His Children through the Spirit.

Extreme Home Makeover and Change

I don't think Josh lives here, but it's a picture of a house nearby, so it'll do.

Joshua's motivational study area.

Hola amigos! Ojala que todos de ustedes esten bien!

Just going to apologize upfront for my English; every week when I reread my emails home to see what my family's responding to, I realize how bad it really is. :P Por fin estoy mas o menos comodo con mi espanol. Practicarlo es divertido de verdad ahora, pero es muy chistoso cuando digo frases de ingles en espanol o viceversa, porque me parecen correcto y no puedo darme cuenta cuando un frase es del otro idioma.

A mission inspector came by a few weeks ago and said our pension was the nastiest in the mission (it's seen around forty years of missionaries), so now we have "Extreme Homemakover: Missionary Edition" going on while we're trying to study. I hate the hammering haha. :) But the pension was pretty bad before, so seeing the new floor and working water taps (not to mention toilet flusher) has been pretty sweet. What with all that and having gas for hot showers again, it's been an exciting week. :)

We had a lot of success this week. We found a ton of super interesting Haitians that are excited to hear the Gospel. It's also one of the coolest things that I've ever experienced because being from Haiti, Spanish is not their first language either. So while we teach in Spanish, they alternate asking questions and helping each other understand what's going on in Creole and French...while Elder Barrett and I plan our next steps in English! Is that crazy or what? XD I love it; they're very cool, humble people. It's also interesting being able to recognize Haitian accents in Spanish. It's funny seeing how similar it is to their English accents. :) Anyways, they're learning a lot from their Book of Mormons and Bibles in French AND Spanish. ;)

Our Mission President taught a lesson this week and talked about a meeting he attended with some other Mission Presidents.  Elder Holland spoke and asked them why missionary work was so hard. Hahaha President said nobody wanted to answer THAT question! :D  Elder  Holland ended up answering his own question, though, and said that he believes that the reason it's so hard is that the Gospel "is a message of CHANGE."  And people don't want to change. Most of us don't like it. 

I really liked that; it makes a lot of sense. What we do as missionaries is invite others to come unto Christ by putting their lives in harmony with His teachings, so that in the end they can be happier. We invite them to "put off the natural man," or the natural state we're comfortable with, and CHANGE, be baptized, be born again.  Only by doing these things, by following Jesus Christ, can we start on the path to enduring happiness and eternal life.  But like Elder Holland said, people don't like change, and really every time my companion and I have been rejected, it has been because the person is comfortable or familiar with their habits, traditions, and day-to-day life.

I loved what our President said at the end. "Hay una vida mejor que tienen ahora." "There is a better life than they have right now." And that's why we keep trying.

I also love this scripture from the Book of Mormon. It really sums up all of our struggles as we try to help people make and keep commitments to pray, to read, and to come to church...in short, to CHANGE. In Alma 42:27 it says, "Por tanto, oh hijo mio, el que quiera venir, puede venir a beber libremente de las aguas de la vida; y quien no quiera venir, no esta obligado a venir." Or in English: "Therefore, oh my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come."

We all have our agency. God's never going to force us to do or have something, even if that something is happiness. So many good scriptures in the Book of Mormon and Bible about that.

Thanks Morgan, Sarah, and Neal family for your letters (the pictures were amazing haha(! In all they were very inspiring, even if some of them took a while to get here! :)

Miss you all! :) Hope you're all ready for Christmas! Remember what it's really about! :)

Love,

Elder Jones

"Uh-oh, uh-oh, trunky, trunky! Change it! NO one's going home for Christmas!"

Here is Joshua with his companion Elder Barrett

 and the two other Elders that share a pension with them.

And here's the little BBQ he mentioned in a previous post.

Hahaha if you're wondering about the title, it's just what my companion said when we were studying and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" popped up on our Christmas playlist. Haha you probably have to be a missionary to really appreciate how funny it was.  "Trunky" is what we call missionaries who are thinking about home instead of the work or counting down days or something like that. ;)
Well, we had changes this week.  "Changes" is when everybody gets their new orders for the next six weeks- where they're going to be serving, who their companion's going to be, etc. Our zone hardly got touched, so I'm happy to say Elder Mason, Elder Mahoni, Elder Barrett, and I will be spending the holidays together. We've found a lot of really good people in the past couple weeks that I have really high hopes for so I definitely didn't want to leave yet. Then again, change is really good, especially on the mission, and I would have been excited to see more of Chile and learn new streets and meet new people again. :)  It's all good.  Where the Lord needs me is where I need to work.

I'm getting really into the language and having a grand old time.  I think my only complaint is that I'd sure like to be able to take a break from proselyting and preaching when I'm sleeping!  I keep having these half-awake, half-asleep dreams where I'm teaching lessons and testifying in Spanish at like 1 in the morning. My companion's hoping it stops, too, because sometimes I have to wake him up to back me up and bear testimony of Jesus Christ. After all, I can't do it alone! ;) ....Anyways, it might be good practice for my Spanish, but it's definitely not helping my sleep. :P

By the way, I miss milk. REAL milk. I can't believe it's come to powdered milk. :( Saaaad face. And what's worse, I can't decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I'm USED to it now. :P My workouts every day have become increasingly more creative, too (water storage for weights, using furniture, etc.). Thus far I've been very pleasantly surprised to see how well we're able to stay fit and healthy. Of course, you have to work. We have plenty of elders who've decided it's just not worth the effort haha.

The work's going well. We had a few struggles with investigators this week hearing false information about our church from others. That makes me SO sad.

Special thanks to Kimi, Sister Krogh, Grandpa, Caroline, and Emily for writing me letters! I'll try to respond through my mom or a letter as soon as I can!  Anyway, that's it for now. Hope you're all doing great! :) I miss you all so much!

Keep the Faith!

-Elder Jones

14 November 2011

These two reminded me of Okinawa --
squating as if it were comfortable and colorful graffiti. 

Hey everybody!  I pray you´re all safe, sound, and finding success in
your work and studies. :)


Things have been going great here!  The weather's been alternating
from being unbearably hot to being freezing cold. And of course, we
always decide to wear short sleeves on days that end up being cold and
long sleeves and suits when it turns out to be hot. :P Okay, not
always.  And when it happens, it gives us something else to laugh
about and keep up our animo (By the way, animo is a great word that
really doesn't have a good English equivalent; it's just better in
Spanish). :)


We found a few solid people to teach this week and we have some good
investigadors right now, but my companion and I are trying to think of more effective ways of finding than knocking doors or stopping people in the street....although we definitely get some good stories out of those methods. :)


The members are really nice and feed us lunch every day. Fun fact: my
companion and I have managed to eat potatoes (in some form) every day
this past week.  It's a conspiracy, I know it.  Don't get me wrong, I
liked it every day....I'm just not sure if our diet of soda, potatoes,
and cereal is 100% in agreement with the food pyramid. Or food plate.
Yeah, it's a plate now, right?


It's funny how much a mission can change you.  I can't believe that
now whenever I have down time, I'm super excited to spend it reading
scriptures or Preach My Gospel. I'm so embarrassed to think about how
much time I wasted with facebook or doing nothing in particular. And
all those hours I called "studying"....I had no idea what studying
was.


Today the four of us had a barbecue.  You'll have to wait for the
pictures to believe how much meat we ate.  And on that note, sorry!
My mom keeps reminding me that the blog is boring without pictures. I
don't take tons (we don't really have much time for stuff like that
and I think we can't actually use our cameras during proselyting) but
I'm looking for a way to print them or make a CD.  SO...with the
super-speedy Chilean mail system we have, you guys should be able to
see them....by next Christmas. If not, I'll just show you all of them
when I get back. ;)


And thank you so much for the speakers, Mom and Dad!
:) I was pretty much the hero of the pension (apartment). Now we can
blast our Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Prince of Egypt music. Or if
we're feeling really cool we'll get some EFY playing up in there!


I should go! Talk to you all soon!
-Elder Jones

5,000 Days Project: Two Brothers
Meet Luke and Sam Nelson, two brothers who struggled to develop a positive relationship in childhood. The Nelson boys are just two of 60 kids documented over a 5,000-day period by filmmaker Rick Stevenson.


I just had to post this link here.  If you have a free hour, I highly recommend you spend it on this show. I especially liked the last half where they followed the older brother on his mission to CHILE!! He's a typical, flawed kid who gains much perspective over the two years. I served my mission in Ecuador. I think this accurately shows the fears, silliness and growth experienced by very young adults on a mission.

We've started teaching English Classes

Recent visit from Elder Zeballos.  Joshua's Mission is divided into three Zones.  This is Joshua's, Zona República.

Close up of a poor quality photo, but you can still see his big smile!

Hello everyone! :)

 

The work's been going really well.  Elder Barrett and I are working better together every day. :) Now when we knock doors or talk to people in the street, we're chatting for 10-25 minutes and getting return appointments. I'm learning that just about everyone can feel the Spirit when we testify and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- IF we're in tune and listening to the promptings of the Spirit.  When we're being obedient, praying fervently, and staying happy, we know which aspect of the gospel to start with and how to present the message in a way that people's hearts, spirits, and minds are touched. 

 

Some days are rougher than others but, in all...I'm really having fun. Like, seriously. I never get enough sleep and I'm already 100% fed up with soda, but I'm really having a blast down here. :) I'm scared I'm going to get transferred to another area before we have time to do everything we want to here.  So many people to meet, teach, and love!

 

A lot of citas fell through this week but we found 12 new investigators this week, including some great families. We're really excited about that. This one sweet lady has six kids and they're very active in another church right now. They were very sweet and the young girls (though a little giggly at times) were very attentive and I think everyone felt the love of Jesus Christ when our prayer and message were through. We found several other solid people. In short, I'm very excited for this upcoming week.

 

Also, we're starting our English classes. We were trying to find ways to meet and get to know more people and I remembered all the English classes they'd teach in Japan.  Like there, everyone here in Chile wants to learn English and we've been able to invite a lot of people. Elder Barrett gets annoyed (and I just crack up) when people who are practically running away from us stop dead in their tracks and whip around to talk to us when we stop inviting them to come to Christ and invite them to English classes. I just think it's hilarious. I'm thinking, "You just told us you wouldn't care if God existed, if He loved you and had a plan for you, or if there was a way your family could live together forever....but you'll practically have a heart attack when you hear 'Clases de Inglés gratis.'" One lady actually said, "Now THAT (referring to English) I'm interested in."  My favorite guy was the one who was "too old" to try and figure God out but apparently thought in his remaining 2-3 years he would be able to use our classes. XD In short, a lot of people are more excited at the prospect of learning English than finding out if eternal life is real and they can have it. Priorities, for the win.

 

I'm saddened every time I hear people, especially the self-proclaimed, "open-minded," "truth-seeking," or "prayerful" who refuse to simply pray to their Heavenly Father about our message humbly, with real intent, and in the name of Christ. If God exists, and this is really how he operates...how are you ever going to know if you don't try the steps He's outlined? If He doesn't exist, you won't get an answer. If we're liars or deceived, He'll tell you. What do you have to lose? On the other hand, if we're really messengers from God, you're keeping yourself out in the cold from all the blessings of the Gospel- the greatest feelings of peace, cleanliness, and true happiness in this life and in the life to come. And what else do you want God to do? He literally has us knocking on your doors, stopping you in the street. He has his prophets and apostles broadcasting the good news through television and internet. I don't know...It just seems so simple to me. :) We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by simply trying and proving God.

 

It's not super relevant but there's this guy in our ward that I LOVE. He's just this super sweet old guy and he joined the Church a little while ago. He's still learning a lot so he's in our Gospel Principles class.  He can't hear anything and says, "Huh?" anytime anybody talks. He accelerates from 0-1 MPH in approximately 2.5 years.  He's like a cross between Mr. Fredricksen from "UP" and that little old guy from "Emperor's New Groove."

 

Anyway, I should go! Love you all! :) Miss you! Sorry if my English is terrible, this computer stinks and I have Spanish on the brain!

 

-Elder Jones

First Impressions of Chile

I have no photos from Chile yet, so here's the day we dropped him off at the MTC.

So mail is weird. They don't really have all that prevalent of a system here in Chile (nothing gets delivered to doorsteps and there aren't a ton of post offices) so for missionaries it's a little sad. Everything gets sent to the mission home and then each week it gets distributed through our pouch system during our Wednesday zone meetings. 

Mail OUT is even worse. According to my trainer, since we don't have a post office in our sector, we're supposed to wait until we have big mission-wide meetings every 2 months or so and give our letters to an Elder who lives in a sector with a post office. That sounds a little ridiculous to me so I'm going to ask around and see what I can find. Right now I'm lucky enough to have an Elder in my zone who can take my letter every week to some other random guy he knows in HIS sector to mail it. Yeah....I'm trying to find a less sketchy way to send stuff, but I guess what I'm saying is that even though I'm writing letters, you might not get them for a little bit. Especially with the approximately 13-day trip one way for each letter. We'll see what happens in the coming months and eventually, I'm sure I'll have a good system worked out. :) For now, here's the address:

Elder Joshua DAVID Jones

Mision Chile Santiago Oeste

Casilla 149

Pajaritos 1921

Maipu, Chile

IMPORTANT: You MUST write "Joshua DAVID Jones" because we have another Joshua Jones serving here and omitting David is going to tack another week or so on to mailtime. :) I thought about it this morning haha. :) And apparently another (third) Elder Josh Jones went home from here just a little while ago. Parents giving me a unique name for the win. ;)

The mission's going great. :) We're working hard to find people and getting to teach a lot of lessons. We had a few slow days with citas (appointments) falling through but when that happens, we try to make up for it by contacting more people. Sometimes I still feel like a coward or a dinkus but little by little I'm getting bolder and less awkward. ;) I have to keep in mind that there is NOTHING "creepy" or "irrelevant" about sharing the message of eternal families and how people can have happiness without money and without price. Sometimes it's hard to get people to realize we're normal people (with normal hopes, dreams, and problems) and that we don't "want" anything from them. We're genuine. Santiago's a different beast, too, because there are lots of preachers yelling on the streets (oftentimes not talking to anyone in particular). We've had a few guys jump onto micros (buses) after us so they can yell at everyone that we're preaching false doctrine or going to hell.  :) When there are quiet, peaceful missionary gatherings of other faiths on the street, though, I like to go up, smile at them, and shake their hands. My trainer thinks I'm funny but it's all good. :)

Spanish seems to have its on and off days hahaha but I know the Lord is blessing me. Sometimes I know what they're saying and what I need to say back even when I don't entirely understand the words that are coming out of their mouth.  Does that make sense?

I'm amazed that we have like four hours or more of studying a day and I still feel like I never have time to just relax and read the Bible or the Book of Mormon.  And I have so much to do on preparation days that I never have time to take a nap. I'm SO tired....but after two and a half months on the mission, I'm kind of accepting it as my new way of life.

My sector's pretty awesome. We do a LOT of walking haha. :) Sometimes it feels like half the day. I guess it's just more motivation to find appointments that don't fall through.  

There are some pretty- for lack of a better word- "sketchy" areas in my sector but it's a great blessing to be able to talk to people of so many different walks of life and see how the Gospel could uniquely bless/better their lives. It's interesting because we know a TON of bad stuff with drugs and whatnot is going down, but we don't ever really feel in danger.  The only trouble we have is with the Chilenas who blow kisses, whistle, or shout things like "que lindo, Elder" at us from their corners or cars. :P We mostly avoid younger women like the plague because a lot of times they're more interested in Americans than they are in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but it's a hard balance between trying to be friendly to everyone (and share the gospel) and making sure our only objective or purpose here is clear.

We had an investigator at Church this week. He's a great kid. We had lots of no-shows though, including some who committed to baptismal dates. :( Hopefully they still have desires to take the steps towards finding true happiness in this life and in the life to come. :)

Okay, I should probably wrap up my time here. I miss you all and hope to hear how you're doing soon! :)

Love,

Elder Joshua DAVID Jones ;)

First Official Letter from Chile

First view from the plane.

At the airport with his fellow "greenies."

At the huge stadium celebration of 50 years
 of the Church being in Chile.
  He arrived the week of the celebration.

¡Hola everyone! I'm finally in Chile! :) I've only been here for five full days and already there's way too much to tell you all!  The flight was pretty good; it was definitely different being a missionary in public...people definitely look at you funny. I thought it was pretty funny how a lot of people in the States actually had panicked looks on their faces and tried to stay out of our way. Don't they know I'm already scared of them? I don't know how to share the Gospel in English! :D :P

We met this great cute old Chilena lady on the plane and I'm going to give her number to the missionaries serving in her area.  We learned pretty quick that Chileans don't speak Spanish (but seriously...I don't feel too bad because even other South Americans can't understand them at first) but despite the first few days being pretty rough, things are already getting better.

I'm serving in the Ochagavia Ward in the Ochagavia Stake.  It's in the city. Mom will be happy to hear that I'm already getting really humbled up with everything.  We thought our cinderblock house in Okinawa was small??  Yeaaaaah right. It's not like these people are living in huts or anything but they're entire houses can't be more than 1,000 square feet....if that. When they take us into their home, they REALLY take us into their home.  The members are so in love with us they make us lunch everyday.  Even though I've been pretty hungry this week, my first thought is always..."Wow...these people have nothing (compared to us) and they're here feeding us." Incredible. Makes you think about all we've been blessed with and reconsider all the ridiculous things we complain about or think we "need."

Basically everyone down here is nice and will chat with us but I still want to work harder. My trainer, Elder Barrett, is a stud, and we try to work hard but I'm realizing that there are a lot of things in the mission that are out of my control and I just need to relax during meetings and whatnot. We found a couple awesome people this week that I think we'll be able to teach and that will progress.

The Andes are beautiful. But here in the city there are filthy, ownerless dogs EVERYWHERE. Basically, Mom would die. There are literally thousands just wandering the streets (like 10 on a block) and they just poop everywhere and bark. It's kind of funny because they'll actually wait for lights to turn green before crossing and everything.  They're definitely their own breed.  For the most part, they hate us and we hate them. :P

The work is tiring but not overly difficult. I'm trying to keep in mind that I can only work my hardest and leave the rest to the Spirit and the agency of those I'm teaching. My testimony is getting stronger everyday, although I feel like I only have time to study for the investigators and never just to be uplifted or enjoy the scriptures for myself. And we study 4 hours a day! 

The Church is true. It really is the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth once more. Anyone can know that for themselves if they'll just be humble and open enough to read the Book of Mormon and ask God to tell them it's true.

The 50th Celebration was SO good. I hope you all can find a way to watch it on BYU TV.

I want to tell you all so much more but I am starving, exhausted, and still have to do shopping, laundry, write a letter, and prepare for a couple lessons tonight. I love you all and hope you're all well! By the way, mail is almost nonexistent here. We send everything and receive everything through the mission home. Use that address. It's the one with Maipu in it. Anyway, there's something like a 2-4 week gap (with snail mail) each way, so if you write me, just be patient. :) I loved your letter, it strengthened me, and I'm going to respond as soon as I can (the next preparation day, which is every Monday).

Love,

Elder Jones

Letter from Joshua's Mission President & short note from Joshua

Dear Brother and Sister Jones,

Sister King and I were pleased to welcome your son, Elder Jones, to one of the finest missions in the world, the Chile Santiago West Mission.  He is well and happy, and we are impressed with his enthusiasm for the work.  After greeting him at the airport and a brief tour of the beautiful city of Santiago, we arrived at our mission home. I interviewed your son and gave him a priesthood blessing.  My Assistants and office missionaries then gave him a brief orientation to the mission.  We had a delicious lunch together, he met his new companion, and that afternoon he left the mission home and departed for his first area of labor.

Elder Jones has been assigned to work with Elder Barrett , who will serve as his training companion.  Trainers are chosen for their competence, patience and dedication, and are selected after prayerful consideration.  With this letter we are including a photograph taken of your son and his new companion with Sister King and myself.

Please accept our deep appreciation for raising such a fine son.  We feel a genuine fellowship with you in supporting and providing him this opportunity to grow spiritually as he labors to bring souls unto Christ.  It is my prayer that the Lord will inspire us all to sustain him in this challenging assignment.  Please write him frequently, weekly if possible.  Express your love, support, and confidence in him.  You will witness miraculous changes in his life as he engages fully in the service of others.

Being parents ourselves, we understand your desire to occasionally send packages.  For your information, packages sent to your missionary through FedEx often require large duty fees which must be paid by the missionary.  Those sent through Global priority mail, marked missionary supplies and valued less then $100 usually arrive duty free and within 2 weeks.

If you have any questions or if we can assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to write.
Sincerely,

President Richard W. King
Chile Santiago West Mission

The Book of Mormon—a Book from God

BY ELDER TAD R. CALLISTER

Of the Presidency of the Seventy

---

Together with the Bible, the Book of Mormon is an indispensable witness of the doctrines of Christ and His divinity.

Years ago my great-great-grandfather picked up a copy of the Book of Mormon for the first time. He opened it to the center and read a few pages. He then declared, “That book was either written by God or the devil, and I am going to find out who wrote it.” He read it through twice in the next 10 days and then declared, “The devil could not have written it—it must be from God.”¹

That is the genius of the Book of Mormon—there is no middle ground. It is either the word of God as professed, or it is a total fraud. This book does not merely claim to be a moral treatise or theological commentary or collection of insightful writings. It claims to be the word of God—every sentence, every verse, every page. Joseph Smith declared that an angel of God directed him to gold plates, which contained the writings of prophets in ancient America, and that he translated those plates by divine powers. If that story is true, then the Book of Mormon is holy scripture, just as it professes to be; if not, it is a sophisticated but, nonetheless, diabolical hoax.

C. S. Lewis spoke of a similar dilemma faced by someone who must choose whether to accept or reject the Savior’s divinity—where there is likewise no middle ground: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. … You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. … But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”²

Likewise, we must make a simple choice with the Book of Mormon: it is either of God or the devil. There is no other option. For a moment I invite you to take a test that will help you determine the true nature of this book. Ask yourself if the following scriptures from the Book of Mormon draw you closer to God or to the devil:

“Feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do” (2 Nephi 32:3).

Or these words of a loving father to his sons: “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation” (Helaman 5:12).

Or these words of a prophet: “Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him” (Moroni 10:32).

Could these statements from the Book of Mormon have possibly been authored by the evil one? After the Savior cast out certain devils, the Pharisees claimed that He did so “by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.” The Savior responded that such a conclusion was nonsensical: “Every kingdom,” He said, “divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every … house divided against itself shall not stand.” And then His compelling climax: “And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?” (Matthew 12:24–26; emphasis added).

If the foregoing scriptures from the Book of Mormon teach us to worship and love and serve the Savior (which they do), how can they be from the devil? If so, he would be divided against himself and thus be destroying his own kingdom, the very condition the Savior said could not exist. An honest, unbiased reading of the Book of Mormon will bring someone to the same conclusion as my great-great-grandfather, namely: “The devil could not have written it—it must be from God.”

But why is the Book of Mormon so essential if we already have the Bible to teach us about Jesus Christ? Have you ever wondered why there are so many Christian churches in the world today when they obtain their doctrines from essentially the same Bible? It is because they interpret the Bible differently. If they interpreted it the same, they would be the same church. This is not a condition the Lord desires, for the Apostle Paul declared that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5). To help bring this oneness about, the Lord established a divine law of witnesses. Paul taught, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1).

The Bible is one witness of Jesus Christ; the Book of Mormon is another. Why is this second witness so crucial? The following illustration may help: How many straight lines can you draw through a single point on a piece of paper? The answer is infinite. For a moment, suppose that single point represents the Bible and that hundreds of those straight lines drawn through that point represent different interpretations of the Bible and that each of those interpretations represents a different church.

What happens, however, if on that piece of paper there is a second point representing the Book of Mormon? How many straight lines could you draw between these two reference points: the Bible and the Book of Mormon? Only one. Only one interpretation of Christ’s doctrines survives the testimony of these two witnesses.

Again and again the Book of Mormon acts as a confirming, clarifying, unifying witness of the doctrines taught in the Bible so that there is only “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” For example, some people are confused as to whether baptism is essential for salvation even though the Savior declared to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). The Book of Mormon, however, eliminates all doubt on that subject: “And he commandeth all men that they must repent, and be baptized in his name, … or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Nephi 9:23).

There exist various modes of baptisms in the world today even though the Bible tells us the manner in which the Savior, our great Exemplar, was baptized: “[He] went up straightway out of the water” (Matthew 3:16). Could He have come up out of the water unless He first went down into the water? Lest there be any discord on this subject, the Book of Mormon dispels it with this straightforward statement of doctrine as to the proper manner of baptism: “And then shall ye immerse them in the water” (3 Nephi 11:26).

Many believe that revelation ended with the Bible even though the Bible itself is a testimony of God’s revelatory pattern over 4,000 years of man’s existence. But one incorrect doctrine such as this is like a domino set in motion that causes the fall of other dominoes or, in this case, the fall of correct doctrines. A belief in the cessation of revelation causes the doctrine that “God is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Mormon 9:9) to fall; it causes the doctrine taught by Amos that “surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7) to fall; and it causes the doctrine that “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) and thus speaks to all men of all ages to fall. But fortunately the Book of Mormon reenthrones the biblical truth of continuous revelation:

“And again, I speak unto you who deny the revelations of God, and say that they are done away, that there are no revelations. …

“Do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever … ?” (Mormon 9:7, 9).

In other words, if God, who is unchangeable, spoke in ancient times, He will likewise speak in modern times.

The list of doctrinal confirmations and clarifications goes on and on, but none is more powerful nor poignant than the Book of Mormon’s discourses on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Would you like to have emblazoned on your soul an undeniable witness that the Savior descended beneath your sins and that there is no sin, no mortal plight outside the merciful reach of His Atonement—that for each of your struggles He has a remedy of superior healing power? Then read the Book of Mormon. It will teach you and testify to you that Christ’s Atonement is infinite because it circumscribes and encompasses and transcends every finite frailty known to man. That is why the prophet Mormon declared, “Ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ” (Moroni 7:41).

No wonder the Book of Mormon proclaims with boldness, “And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ” (2 Nephi 33:10). Together with the Bible, the Book of Mormon is an indispensable witness of the doctrines of Christ and His divinity. Together with the Bible, it “teach[es] all men that they should do good” (2 Nephi 33:10). And together with the Bible, it brings us to “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” That is why the Book of Mormon is so crucial in our lives.

Some years ago I attended one of our worship services in Toronto, Canada. A 14-year-old girl was the speaker. She said that she had been discussing religion with one of her friends at school. Her friend said to her, “What religion do you belong to?”

She replied, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.”

Her friend replied, “I know that church, and I know it’s not true.”

“How do you know?” came the reply.

“Because,” said her friend, “I have researched it.”

“Have you read the Book of Mormon?”

“No,” came the answer. “I haven’t.”

Then this sweet young girl responded, “Then you haven’t researched my church, because I have read every page of the Book of Mormon and I know it’s true.”

I too have read every page of the Book of Mormon, again and again, and I bear my solemn witness, like my great-great-grandfather, it is from God. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.